I have a Minolta Digital Dimage Dual and am trying it for the first time, and I seem only to be able to scan Jpeg as they seem to be already compressed. I am scanning in Photoshop. Also a bit of advice on how to get the best images for use on the web would be very helpful. I do not intend to print from digital.

Thanks in advance for all the help I know you will give...

-- Richard Palmer (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 08, 2001

Answers

I don't think you're on the right forum. We only know about Leicas! :+) Try scan tips

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), September 08, 2001.

http://www.scantips.com (so much for my "clickable link!"

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), September 08, 2001.

Phil,

I don't believe you I thought this forum new everything about everything....Does it help if I took the negatives with a Leica.....

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 08, 2001.

Richard, not every question has a quick and easy answer. I've been scanning and using PhotoShop for a year, and feel that I've just scratched the surface. It's a topic as deep and complex as the intersection of light and electronics, with human perception thrown in for good measure. So I suggest that you read a few books, study your manual, and experiment. A forum like this can provide an answer to a question about the proper model lens shade for a particular lens, but "how to get the best images for use on the web" strikes me a bit like "how do you play the cello?" Do you search with an engine like google.com? You will come up with articles like "My methods for preparing images for digital display." here There are articles in the photo.net site as well.

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), September 08, 2001.

Richard, this is not brain surgery. Scan at 72 or 100 dpi at the size you want your final to be. The calculation is simple within photoshop: Image Size... Scan it as a Positive with settings as neutral as possible in other words not to contrasty you can always compare your monitor with an other neg on your light box. Then invert it in photoshop and adjust col bal, contrast..... It's a lot easier then it looks. Remember KIS.(Keep it Simple).

-- daniel (malkafoto@home.com), September 08, 2001.

Wow two ends of the spectrum...My question could be answered by anyone who scans negatives regularly I believe. I understand pixels image size etc. I have used photshop for a number of years etc. My question really is related to useful tips for scanning, eg it is better to scan at full resolution and resize in photoshop, use which type of jpeg compression for monochrome, when you resize it is better to do it in 2 bites rather than one. Make sure you increase chroma bla bla bla etc. Also jpeg files are already compressed bu this seems like my only scan option with the dual scan, does anybody on this forum use one. If nobody uses or is interested in scanning they should not really have got to this link.

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 08, 2001.

I don't know why you are only getting JPEGs. I scan negatives with a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II using the Photoshop plug-in and can store the scans as any format Photoshop supports.

As to your scanning for the web question, I find it best to scan at the max optical resolution of the scanner, make Levels, Contrast, Color and Sharpening adjustments first at that point (as well as sizing for print output without resampling). Then I save that file for printing, reset the size for web display (I usually make sure web photos fit in a box bounded by 600 pixels wide and 500 pixels tall) by downsampling. The result usually requires a single pass of the Sharpen filter to bring it back up to snuff. Save that as a JPEG file.

There are plenty of examples of my photography prepared this way on my website. The most recent work is generally in the Photo A Week area.

Godfrey - http://www.bayarea.net/~ramarren/

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), September 08, 2001.

I'm not sure why you would only be able to scan as jpegs, but these are usually the best format for the web, so they should work out alright as long as you don't keep resaving them (I've never used the Minolta scanner you have, but I've used various Nikon Coolscans and even the old LeafScan 35). Once you have the file in photoshop, tweak it and then save it. Everytime that you resave a jpeg file, you are compressing it even more and losing quality. Idealy you would scan it as a tiff or photoshope file - neither of which compress the file - and then after the color, contrast, sharpening, etc. is done in photoshop you would save it as a jpeg.

When scanning for the web, use a resolution of 72, which is the highest resolution that monitors have, and then set the size required (larger files take longer to load).

Hopefully this helps as I'm not very good at explaining it :).

john

-- j locher (locherjohn@hotmail.com), September 08, 2001.

When I size things, I usually zoom them up and down the percentage scale until I see something I like, visually, on the screen, rather than using theoretical measurements based on the now non-realistic 72dpi (how many of you are still at 640x480 on a 15 inch monitor?) and then resample in Photoshop to that percentage. And then I check the results in my browser, to see if it tonally reads the same as in PS--it never does, so I usually touch up the curves a bit and look again. As Godfrey notes, another round of sharpening--idealized for the new size--is usually good, once you've resampled to the final size, and got all the tonal and color stuff anchored.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), September 09, 2001.

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-- Scan NYC (Scannyc@hotmali.com), February 17, 2002.